Day 2 Keynote Summary

Today’s General Session was hosted by Ray O’Ferrell, VMware’s recently former CTO and now EVP leading VMware’s expanding Cloud-Native Apps BU. The session started with a video of a young college girl in the not too distant future leveraging dozens of innovative applications on her phone that are critical to her studies, travel, and hobbies all on top of on a robust, secure cloud platform built on VMware.

Ray started the keynote discussion on our world of digital transformation and digital infrastructure, stating the fact that every single industry is touched by this digital transformation. The enterprises that leverage all this new technology are quickly and pragmatically going to be the enterprises that can compete in the digital future.

He then introduced a fake online company for the purposes of this session, Tanzu Tees, to help the audience understand how VMware can help in each of the four categories above. How does Tanzu Tees manage multiple frameworks, clouds, and multiple languages to deliver the necessary experience to their customers? Ray broke it down into four categories:

Build and Run

Connect and Protect

Manage

Experience

Build and Run – Ray talked about building cloud native applications and microservices utilizing VMware services like Tanzu, Pivotal, and Bitnami. He then introduced June Yang onto the stage to give a demo on the ‘run’ part of ‘build and run’. She showed off a demo of the former ‘Project Dimension’, now called VMware Cloud on Dell EMC. She ordered a new SDDC location for Tanzu Tees. When the order is placed, VMware and Dell EMC start building a fully configured and managed SDDC rack for the customer at the location specified. She then demoed Project Pacific, which Pat introduced in the keynote yesterday. Finally, she demoed Tanzu Mission Control, which showed how we can manage multiple Kubernetes clusters in multiple clouds all from one location.Connect and Protect – For this next demo, Ray introduced Marcos Hernandez. Marcos showed how we can configure service level objectives for our applications in Tanzu Mission Control, and how AVI Networks load balancers can reroute traffic to reduce downtime. He then showed how NSX Service Mesh can auto scale workloads to bring our applications back into SLO compliance. In his second demo, Marcos introduced NSX Intelligence. NSX Intelligence was able to drill down into our applications and apply security recommendations based on multiple data inputs. He showed how NSX Intelligence can simulate a security policy before applying it, avoiding unforeseen issues. Finally, Marcos demoed AppDefense and how it can be used to detect vulnerabilities in your SDDC and drill down to the offending application or process to remediate quickly.Manage– For the manage portion of the keynote, Ray introduced Purnima Padmanabhan to demo consistent management with VMware. She started by showing how Wavefront can help us pinpoint problems through its event collection and analysis capabilities. Wavefront will pull information from NSX Service Mesh to map dependencies and show application performance. She seamlessly switched from Wavefront to vRealize Operations to troubleshoot a VSAN issue. In vRealize Operations she enabled Magnafor the vSAN cluster, which allowed vRealize Operations to automatically tune the cluster for read performance without the administrator having to deal with the dials and knobs. In her next demo, Purnima demoed how CloudHealth can help track cost for our applications and give recommendations on how to lower those costs.Experience - Shikha Mittal came onstage for the Experience portion of the keynote. She gave a demo of VMware’s digital workspace solutions for quick employee onboarding. She announced VMware Horizon Desktop as a service on AWS and demoed how to quickly deploy a new Horizon site in AWS. She then showed off the Horizon Image Management Service, which allows admins to view a global catalog of images to deploy. Administrators can use policies to route different users to different sites and customize the applications that they have access to. She then showed how Workspace One can manage things like app issues, device issues, and overall user experience on all connected devices. Finally, she demoed how Workspace One Risk Analytics uses machine learning to learn expected behavior and protect high risk users from malicious software.

“Art of the possible in a multi-cloud world”

For our final demo, Ray introduced Greg Lavender to discuss customer concerns with their journey to the cloud and how to refactor or migrate their current applications. Greg talked about how Bitfusion’s technology lets us leverage GPUs and FPGAs to run machine learning and NFV tasks in the cloud or on-prem. He then moved onto a cool demo where he showed how we can use VMware HCX to migrate an IoT edge application from Azure’s IoT platform to AWS’s IoT platform and vice versa, with zero network downtime thanks to NSX.

After the demo, Pat Gelsinger came up on stage and announced that Ray O’Farrell would be moving on from his CTO role to leading VMware’s cloud native division, and that Greg Lavender would be taking Ray’s old spot as CTO. You can read more about this surprise announcement here.

General Session Day 2 Replay

Summary of Day 2 Announcements

The Next Chapter in Cloud Innovation: VMworld Day One Recap

The first day of VMworld was exciting. Read VMware Vice President and CTO Chris Wolf’s recap of the day in his blog, VMworld 2019 and Our Relentless Pursuit of the Possible. Innovations and enhancements in hybrid cloud, VMware’s Tanzu Portfolio, VMware Cloud on AWS, and much more demonstrate our commitment to creating value for our customers.

Watch VMworld General Sessions On-Demand

Monday’s General Session with VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger and COO Sanjay Poonen is now available on-demand. Watch the replay and explore bold innovations that the VMware ecosystem is bringing to market, with a special focus on new breakthrough offerings at the intersection of cloud, apps, containers, networking, mobility and security. Plus, learn how you can hone new skills and harness new game-changing technologies.

On Tuesday, VMware CTO Ray O’Farrell guided a conversation with a series of hands-on demosthat look at the dynamic interplay between apps, infrastructure, cloud, networking, security, and devices. Then, Sanjay Poonen hosted two professional athletes, skier Lindsey Vonn, the top US skier of all time, and Steve Young, Pro Football Hall of Famer and former 49er quarterback. They share personal stories of their unrelenting work ethic, how they overcame obstacles, and what drives their passion.

The Industry’s Only Complete Software-Defined Networking and Security Stack Built for the Multi-Cloud Era

Today we also announced a broad set of networking and security innovations and major milestones that further advance our vision of the Virtual Cloud Network. Important updates include the introduction of VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer; new and enhanced network and security analytics capabilities, delivered through VMware vRealize Network Insight 5.0 and NSX Intelligence, which build upon advancements of VMware’s SD-WAN by VeloCloud, the industry’s only hyperscale cloud networking solution. Read the announcementto learn more. Introducing Project Magna

We also provided a preview of Project Magna, which is a reinforcement learning-based automated vSAN performance tuning service. Project Magna will be the first instantiation of the self-driving data center vision, beginning with VMware vSAN. It will focus on using reinforcement learning to understand application needs and to continually and dynamically auto-optimize the underlying vSAN configuration to drive greater performance and efficiencies. Magna will be delivered as a combination of a VMware cloud service integrated withvRealize Operations.Expanding Telco and Edge Cloud Portfolio to Enable Better Connectivity and Automation for Communication Service Providers and Enterprises

VMware has expanded its Telco and Edge Cloud portfolio to drive real-time intelligence for telco networks, as well as improved automation and security for telco, Edge and IoT applications. This is an important development and one that enables them to efficiently deploy, realize and monetize their 4G and 5G network investments through an expanded set of use cases targeting enterprise customers. We also announced the closing of the acquisition of Uhana. Read the press releasefor more information.

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

VMworld US 2019 Day 1 is in the books along with a slew of exciting announcements and developments. Expanded partnerships in hybrid cloud, VMware Tanzu preview, and enhancements to Workspace ONE are just a few of the major announcements that help position VMware as a critical player in today's Enterprise.

Day 1 Keynote Summary

Today at the VMworld 2019 Day 1 General Session, we showcased our vision of a software architecture that enables any app, on any cloud, to any device with new technology offerings, customer stories and strategic partnerships. Pat Gelsinger provided more detail on our strategy to accomplish this goal with the announcement of the VMware Tanzu Portfolio, as well as innovations such as Project Pacific, and our expanded Cloud Offerings and collaborations such as VMware Cloud on AWS and the recently announced NVIDIA partnership. Following Pat, Sanjay Poonen interviewed leading-edge customers, including a video interview with several executives at Verizon and onstage interviews with Gap and Freddie Mac executives; all of whom are harnessing game-changing technologies to drive innovation across their companies and industries. Sanjay also unveiled innovations to our Workspace ONE platform that are enhancing the employee experience from hire to retire with industry-first concierge services and advanced management and security features.

General Session Day 1 Replay

Summary of Day 1 Announcements

VMware is continuing to build its agnostic platform while expanding partnerships. No matter the platform you choose now or in the future (AWS, Dell, Microsoft, Google, IBM, and HPE), VMware continues to be strongly positioned to be the provider for any cloud, as well as on-prem—we use the same software and VMware Validated Design with our VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) stack, enabling you to migrate, modernize and manage workloads across clouds, data centers, and edge locations with consistent hybrid cloud infrastructure and operations.

We’ve also made a lot of complementary announcementson automation, disaster recovery as-a-service, and proactive support, among others. Read the announcement for additional information. VMware Cloud on AWS Helps You Migrate and Modernize Applications

A new study shows that customers who want to migrate to the cloud can save 59 percent in operational costs with VMware Cloud on AWS versus the equivalent capacity in a traditional data center. Additionally, VMware Cloud on AWS is now available in 16 AWS regions globally and can be purchased from both AWS and VMware. Check out the press releasefor the full study and additional resources. NVIDIA and VMware Intend to Deliver Accelerated GPU Services for VMware Cloud on AWS

The partnership is designed to power modern enterprise applications, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and data analytics workflows. These services will further allow you to migrate workloads that previously were not well-suited for the cloud and take advantage of high-performance computing, machine learning, data analytics and video-processing applications.

Simply put, we’re adding capabilities that will make it easier to move specific and graphic-based workloads to the cloud. Read the announcementfor the details.VMware Announces VMware Tanzu Portfolio

While this is a preview into what’s coming, Tanzu enables you to build modern apps on Kubernetes and manage all of your clusters from a single control point. Ultimately, integrated teams can request what they need, when they need it, and get it effectively and efficiently. This helps you keep up with the speed of tech while not having to worry about changes and patching continuously.

Additionally, take a look at Project Pacific, which will enable IT operators and developers to accelerate innovation by running modern applications on VMware vSphere with native Kubernetes. Read the releasefor details. VMware Unveils Innovations Across Its Industry-Leading Workspace ONE Platform

New enhancements and capabilities to Workspace ONE will help you grow, expand and transform. The new modern management, security and multi-cloud VDI innovations will allow IT teams to leverage the power of automation to intelligently manage and secure access to any app, on any cloud, delivered to any device. And it makes you faster. You have the tools you need, and they’re integrated across multiple devices and platforms, such as Dell.

For example, VMware is leading the way in helping IT and HR reimagine the onboarding and day one employee experiences with the introduction of digital concierge services, leveraging the extensive automation capabilities of the Workspace ONE platform and the richness of partner integrations. Check out the articlefor more information.Finally, you may want to read through VMware CTO Chris Wolf’s summary of the day: VMworld 2019 and Our Relentless Pursuit of the Possible. This provides you with a consolidated look at the vision and strategy behind today’s announcements.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

In this post I'll cover the process of upgrading Seafile Server from 6.3.4 to 7.0.4. I've been running Seafile Server in an Ubuntu VM on my Linux Server for about a year and a half. Along with using Let's Encrypt's Certbot, it's been an incredibly stable and virtually 'hands off' service.

Pre Upgrade

Backup current system. As I run Seafile in a VMware Workstation (for Linux) VM, it's easy to create a quick snapshot of the current system and configuration that I can revert to in the case of any unforeseen issues. Additionally, I run Timeshift with daily/weekly/monthly rollups of my entire server. Can't ever be too careful!

Download the new Seafile bits. Seafile Server is a quick download from their download page, and is simple to run a wget on the download to get it to your server.

Make sure the current server is functional. Before you perform any upgrade of any service/application, it's best practice to ensure the current iteration is up and running and functional. This is a practice any IT professional should follow regardless of your employer/application/service in question. Failing to do so can bring unwanted behaviors to your updated instance, or even cause the upgrade to fail altogether.

Review the Release Notes. Once again, a best practice anyone in IT should follow before jumping into an upgrade is reviewing the Release Notes of the target version. Release Notes are known to include critical information not only related to new features, but often around the upgrade process itself.

Upgrade

After reviewing the release notes and downloading the 7.0.4 bits to your server, untar the file using the command tar -xzvf seafile-server_7.0.4_x86-64.tar.gz and ensure the resulting folder is in the same directory as your current seafile installation

The next step is to stop your seafile services (seahub and seafile) by running ./seahub.sh stop && seafile.sh stop

Once the services are stopped, go into the new 7.0.4 directory and find the upgrade scripts under the upgrade folder. Starting with the script of your current server (in my case, 6.3.4 would correlate to upgrade_6.3_7.0.sh), run each script

Run the upgrade script and press ENTER

You may find some [info] and [warning] messages, but as long as there are no [error] messages, you'll look for "Upgraded your seafile server successfully"

Ensure your seafile and seahub services start successfully, then verify your version on the server in the About section.

And congrats you're done!

One thing I tried testing that doesn't seem to be fully working yet is editing the new Published Library's .md file. I get a spinning circle as if it's thinking or loading something. In my case, it just spins indefinitely:

At any rate, your server should now be upgraded! Let me know how your upgrade went in the comments. Thanks for reading!